Chapter Thirty-Seven

"AH! ARG! AH STOP! PLEASE! AH!" Tragic sounds continued to resound outside the Mark Master department. Wailing, screaming, and grunting; all of these sounds were like slaps that hit everyone in the crowd. They could only watch as the person was tortured, however they couldn't do anything about it.

"A-Arnin, don't you think that's enough? He might die if you continue to beat him more." Xillar couldn't help but step forward once again. He felt bad that he couldn't do anything to stop the sight in front of him. If he attacked Arnin, then Torne would be tortured in a different way. His hands were tied.

"He won't die unless I want him to. Kurse, watch carefully. This is what happens to my servants, or anyone for that matter that disobeys me." Arnin then continued to beat the bruised and bleeding Torne. Kurse watched with fear as he regretted ever making a bet with Arnin.

'If I knew you were like this, I wouldn't have dared to even breathe in front of you, let alone make a bet.' Kurse couldn't help but sigh bitterly at his own hapless life. What made it worse was that there was no time limit for the bet. At one point, he thought that he could get rid of the mark as soon as he wanted since there was never a time limit, however it wouldn't leave. The only way to break the contract was if Arnin allowed him to leave.

Half an hour passed, and Torne was now unrecognizable. His face was completely swollen, and blood leaked from his nose and mouth. His arms were covered in deep, black bruises that also secreted blood. Snot and mucous surrounded his swollen lips and even covered his shredded clothes. The sight was unbearable. The crowd looked at Arnin in horror and took a step back away from him.

"Get up! I have work to do and don't have time for your laziness." Arnin glared at the exhausted and pitiful Torne. He didn't show any concern for Torne, only annoyance.

"Arnin, he isn't doing well. Maybe we should take him to a physician first." Xillar quickly spoke up. He had to speak in a different manner since the issue was now technically between a master and slave. Although both of them were students, he couldn't do anything to Arnin because of his mysterious backer, and he also couldn't help Torne since Arnin could just torture him through the mark. He was at a complete disadvantage and couldn't do anything about it.

"This is none of your business. As my slave, I can do whatever I like with him. This does not concern you. Hey! What did I say? Get up!" Arnin calmly looked at Xillar before lashing out on Torne. The pitiful fella could barely move his arms and legs before receiving another small beating. Everyone watched with seriousness.

'Isn't this kid going to far? Senior might die because of this' Someone in the crowd couldn't help but think about this.

'This is no five-year-old. He is a monster, a demon!' The people in the crowd began to have their own thoughts about Arnin. They shivered at the sight.

Torne wailed under Arnin's new beatings. "I a-a-am g-g-get-t-ting u-up, p-ple-ease s-sto-p-p." Torne was barely able to make out hid sentence with his face all swollen up.

"Hurry up! I don't have time to waste on you." Arnin snorted before walking away from Torne.

"Master, wait!" Just as Arnin was about to leave completely, Kurse remembered the issue around the black sphere.

Arnin turned around and asked in annoyance. "What is it?"

"Umm, this black sphere identifies you as a Mark Master. You have to add a drop of your blood to finalize the whole procedure." Kurse had shaky hands as he handed Arnin the black sphere.

Arnin looked at the sphere before dropping a small amount of blood on it. The black sphere then began to shine with a red hue before dimming once more.

"How do I use this thing?" Arnin didn't understand the use behind the object, so he looked up and questioned Kurse.

"Teacher Xillar, would you mind explaining?" Kurse didn't know the details about the sphere so he could only hand the job over to Xillar. The teacher nodded and walked over with wrinkled eyebrows. He was still thinking about Torne's condition and how helpless he was regarding the whole situation.

"To access the sphere, you just need to insert a small orb thread into the core. Then the information will be shown in your mind." Arnin nodded his head and did just that.

[Arnin Foro - Age: 5 - Mark Master: Pink - Race: (D) Human]

Arnin looked at the information and nodded his head. Although his Mark Master level was not considered high, it was much better than almost everyone his age.

Arnin put the sphere into his robe and began to walk away. "Kurse, go and grab me some of those empty stones. Then, meet me back in my house and bring the slave along with you." Arnin didn't turn around but gave his command.

"Y-yes." Kurse felt defeated. He couldn't do anything else anymore. His goal of becoming something or someone great was in the hands of Arnin.

Xillar watched the scene and sighed in his heart. 'These kids have really fallen into a pit. Maybe the principal could do something about this, but with that person protecting him from behind the scenes, even he can't do much.' Xillar shook his head and vanished into thin air.

Kurse quickly ran into the Mark Master department and took some of the empty stones. He then rushed out and helped Torne towards the residential area.

Before going to his own house, Arnin decided to head to the two girls' house. He needed to make sure that no one was going to try and duel for the house. If there was someone there, then he needed to go and teach those people a lesson.

Arriving at the small house, Arnin walked in without knocking. Entering the house, he found the two girls sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed. They were cultivating tirelessly. Arnin decided not to disturb them and headed back to his home. He would go find Akig before his classes began tomorrow. After all, he still needed someone to look after Vilis while he was away.

When he got to his home, he found a person standing in front of it. When Arnin saw the individual, he couldn't help but start to feel some annoyance. It was none other then Fae.

"What do you want?" Arnin glared at the woman sharply.

"Why do you always push me away? Am I really that bad?" Fae looked at Arnin with some 'sadness'.

"I don't want to hear you speak nonsense. Just tell me what you want!" Arnin began to feel even more annoyed. He just couldn't bring himself to like this person. Her every action pissed him off.

"Don't be that way. I helped you out with the whole entrance thing as well. You should at least show some gratitude." Fae looked at Arnin with a smile.

"Whether you helped me or not doesn't matter. No one asked you to help, so don't expect anything in return." Arnin spoke with nonchalance, however his heart was pumping blood, getting him ready to fight at anytime.

"True, true. Well, let us speak inside. I want to give you something." Fae walked into Arnin's home without hesitation, however Arnin didn't care too much about that. He was curious as to what this woman wanted to give him.

Grrrrrrr

Stepping inside, Arnin saw Vilis growling at Fae. She, on the other hand, showed no fear. Fae just smiled at Vilis, brightly.

"Vilis, move to the side." Arnin calmly spoke to Vilis, who in turn walked to the side of Arnin.

"This is a pretty cute house. I didn't think someone such as yourself would like this type of place." The woman gave Arnin a deep smile. The latter ignored her words and sat down onto a chair, not offering Fae anything.

"Cut the chatter. What do you want?" Fae nodded her head without getting angry. She took out a sheet of paper and handed it to Arnin. He looked at the page with confusion. It was blank.

"What is this?" Arnin became even more annoyed at Fae for trying to be mysterious.

"You will find out in about a month. This page will only reveal its contents around that time. Well, I have done my job. See you." Fae left the house and the disappeared. Arnin snorted before focusing on the page. He tried to inspect it with his orb threads, but nothing came up. He used the saber to see if he could drag any essence or energy out, however there was no reaction.

Arnin couldn't figure anything out with his current abilities. He needed to quickly achieve a breakthrough in his cultivation so that he could go and take over other houses. Although he didn't need more homes, the more he had, the more servants he could get. If he occupied a bunch of houses, then he could have the Moth students do things for him in exchange for those homes. However, he wasn't the strongest in the area, so he needed to first increase his cultivation.

Arnin sat down onto the ground and closed his eyes. In the past, he would use his threads to absorb the essence in the world, but with the new ability of the saber, he could increase his absorption. Arnin controlled the saber and had it come out from his hands, feet, chest and head. Although the blades were white, his body was surrounded by a deep red hue. The significant number of blades that came out from different parts of his body allowed for rapid essence absorption. Not only that, but the essence came in a cluster of different kinds. There was worldly essence, solar essence, and some other types. Arnin was absorbing most of them into his body and converting them into his own essence, however he kept a lookout for the time component. Ever since he discovered the time essence, he became excited for a breakthrough in his mastery of time.

An hour passed and Arnin's orb was almost completely filled with essence, however there was no sign of the time component. 'It is a rare essence; even in the whole universe it is extremely difficult to find.' Arnin stopped with his cultivation and walked to his door. He had Kurse bring him some empty stones for him to practice with, so he went to check whether he had arrived yet or not.

"H-how could you become a servant for such a demon child? He is not going to treat you well." Kurse was walking extremely slowly with the injured Torne. They were both discussing their unfortunate encounter with Arnin.

"I didn't want to become his servant. Who would have known that he was so strong at such a young age? He really is extremely frightening. Haha." Kurse bitterly laughed as he spoke to Torne.

Kurse had grabbed a large amount of the stones, but since he was bringing an injured person back, it was taking him much longer to get back to Arnin. He was somewhat scared that Arnin might beat him for getting late, however he couldn't move any faster with an injured person.

"You got it lucky. You are just a servant; however, I was forced into becoming his slave. Not only do I have the slave mark, I can't resist him. My luck is so bad." Deep sadness was written all over his face.

Kurse looked at Torne with some pity. He really did have it tough.

"What took you so long?" Both of them were almost at Arnin's home when they heard a voice. Both of them looked up and couldn't help but sigh and feel somewhat frightening.

"Master, sorry. We were a little slow. Torne is injured and I had to bring the stones, so it took a little longer." Kurse was the one to speak up. Although he was a servant, he felt that if Torns spoke, then Arnin might get angrier.

"Stop giving me excuses. You are at Orb Birth - Heaven realm, it shouldn't have taken you so long." Arnin glared at Kurse with his dagger like eyes.

"S-sorry maste-" Before Kurse could finish, Arnin kicked him onto the ground. Arnin knew that the two took longer than they could have. If Kurse wanted, he could have ran with two people in his arms.

"Incompetent. Hurry up! If you take too long, don't blame me for having Vilis tend to you both later." Kurse had a bitter look on his face as he picked up Torne, who had fallen along with him.

Arnin vanished from their sight. Torne and Kurse couldn't help but sigh deeply. They really felt that their lives had fallen to the lowest. Torne, who was older, accepted it much more easily, however Kurse was on the verge of tears.

"It's alright Kurse. We will regain our freedom one day, however the only way to do so is to have that demon child renege the contract or find someone who can do it for us." Torne noticed that Kurse was feeling extremely down and his face was completely red. Although he himself was beaten black and blue, he found that Kurse was more pitiful. Kurse was still so young.

"I don't think it is possible. If it was, don't you think teacher Xillar would have done something already? We can't even kill him, if we do then you will die along with him, and who knows what will happen to me." Remembering Xillar's reaction and his helplessness, Kurse felt like he was drowning even more.

Torne shook his head bitterly before picking up his speed. Although he was in extreme pain, he didn't want to get another beating, or even get Kurse in much more trouble. Just as they were about to finally approach Arnin's home, an idea hit Kurse.

"Senior Torne, there might be a way to solve our problem." Kurse happily looked at Torne. His previous sunken face had regained some hope.

"Oh? And what is that?" Torne noticed this change and couldn't help but wonder. If he could get out of the contract, then he would be safe and out of harm's way.

"Arnin is not alone. He has two other girls that he takes care of. They have taken over my house, but if we ask them to speak up for us, then he might just break the contract. He seems to care for them a lot." Kurse remembered how Arnin took over his home just for the two girls. If Arnin cared about them so much, then he might listen to them as well.

"Are you positive that Arnin will listen to them?" Torne asked with some doubts.

"Well, he took over my house just for them. They are Butterfly students, so him bringing them here would cause problems. If he didn't care, why would he do this?" Kurse spoke reasonably.

"That's true. If that's the case, then you go and speak with them at some point. Let us hope this might save us." Torne closed his eyes and prayed.

As they both chatted in front of Arnin's house, they didn't notice someone glaring at them with a wicked smile.